Chinese and Comparative Philosophy 中國哲學與比較哲學

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Category Archives: Politics

Here is a call for papers for a workshop on “Political Pluralism in Greater China – 大中华的政治多元化,” to be held in July 2019 at the University of Lucerne, organized by Philipp Renninger (Lucerne) and Ewan Smith (Oxford).

I have made another post over at Neo-Confucianism.com, this time describing how I used the role-playing pedagogy “Reacting to the Past” in my recent course on Neo-Confucianism. It was great fun, and I encourage you to check it out!

David Ownby’s and Timothy Cheek’s analysis and translation of “Jiang Shigong on ‘Philosophy and History: Interpreting the “Xi Jinping Era” through Xi’s Report to the Nineteenth National Congress of the CCP’,” posted here at The China Story, is extremely well-done!

I’d like to call out one item in the recently-published issue of Comparative Philosophyfor special mention. “The Future of Confucian Political Philosophy” is a 22,000 word edited transcript of a roundtable discussion that was held in Hong Kong in February 2017. (Direct link to the transcript is here.) The main speakers are:

Stephen C. ANGLE, Wesleyan University

Elton CHAN, Yale-NUS College

Joseph CHAN, University of Hong Kong

Jiwei CI, University of Hong Kong

Ruiping FAN, City University of Hong Kong

Yong HUANG, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Yi-Huah JIANG, City University of Hong Kong

Sungmoon KIM, City University of Hong Kong

We each make presentations, and then there is ample time for discussion, both among the invited speakers and with other attendees. On behalf of all participants, I hope that readers will find this to be an engaging snapshot of the some of the state of the art — and some glimpses of the future — of Confucian political philosophy. Discussion here of its themes is of course encouraged!

Commentators have been quick to observe that the recent Chinese Communist Party Congress guaranteed President Xi Jinping’s firm grip on power for years to come. However, few have noted the Confucian roots of Mr Xi’s world view.

Mr Xi himself has been very candid about his admiration for traditional Chinese thought and his view that Chinese socialism is consistent with it. As I point out in my recent book, Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto, Mr Xi’s appropriations of traditional Chinese thought are sometimes opportunistic. But the same can be said of the way many US politicians appeal to the Bible. In addition, there are at least four points on which Mr Xi is genuinely Confucian in spirit.

In his first five-year term as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping regularly cited classical Chinese philosophy in order to bolster his image as a man of learning and virtue. In May 2014, he implied his own rectitude by invoking Confucius in Analects 15.1 at a meeting of young people: “The noble man considers righteousness essential.” Although we’ve been hearing more Marxism in connection to Xi’s name of late, there is good reason to believe he will continue to reach for a neo-traditionalist brand of political legitimation over the next five years. But his apparent erudition is selective….